Columbine Officer Discusses Inquest

Published 12:45 pm, Monday, April 25, 2016

An officer accused by parents of accidentally killing their son during the Columbine High School massacre says he is disappointed a coroner's inquest won't be held because he believes it would exonerate him.

"I want this in the public eye. I'm sick and tired of this conspiracy label," Police Sgt. Dan O'Shea said in an interview published Sunday in The Denver Post. "I was nowhere near this kid."

O'Shea said his comments to a school administrator about "friendly fire" at the Columbine massacre have been misinterpreted as evidence that he killed 15-year-old Daniel Rohrbough.

A sheriff's report said Rohrbough was killed by student gunman Dylan Klebold. On Thursday, the Jefferson County coroner denied a request to call an inquest, saying the evidence supports the official finding that Klebold killed Rohrbough.

But Rohrbough's parents claim he was accidentally killed by a police officer during April 20, 1999, massacre.

Two days after the shooting, O'Shea told former school administrator Celine Marquez about fears he may have shot a student. Marquez's statements were included in a motion filed by the family Dec. 26 seeking to reinstate their wrongful-death and negligence lawsuit against the Jefferson County Sheriff's Office.

"It wasn't a single shot, it was every single one of them that I fired into that school that concerned me," said O'Shea, a 16-year Denver police veteran and former SWAT member.

He said he fired his 9mm submachine gun into the school's library to provide cover for rescue workers removing injured students from outside the school.

O'Shea said his fears were eased when he learned investigators discovered that students killed in the library where shot at close range.